AN: A scene and some dialogue has been borrowed from the Age of Republic comic, and more dialogue has been borrowed from a deleted scene from The Clone Wars TV show.

When will you learn that they are your legacy?

We are your legacy!

– "First Burn", Hamilton on Broadway (Outtake)

Maul took one step, then two in her direction. "Eldra, are you hurt?"

She was, but not in the way he was referring to. He was scanning her body for any signs of physical injury, not knowing that the pain was inside her. And that pain hadn't even been inflicted by Lorn Pavan, but by Maul himself.

"Don't." She held out her hand, stopping him from getting any closer. "Stay right where you are."

He frowned, confused, then started to look around the apartment. His eyes widened when he noticed the significant absence. "Where's Kassandra?"

Eldra refused to reply. She knew he couldn't sense their daughter; Kassandra had been practising masking her Force signature, and just that morning Eldra had been planning on surprising Maul with this new skill. She would have encouraged Kassandra to hide so Maul could find her, and then she would have teased him about being a worry wort for the rest of the evening.

Those plans were shattered. It felt like a completely different life, the one she'd been leading just that morning.

When she didn't reply, Maul snarled and crossed the room, getting right up in her face. She didn't flinch, and showed no signs that he was intimidating her. "Where is she?!"

Still she said nothing, just stared him down with a glare. Eventually Maul gave up and took off around the apartment, searching for their missing daughter.

Once he was out of sight, Eldra let the tension leave her body and held back her tears. She knew it was going to be hard to reject him; knew that she couldn't let him back into her arms or her bed, or even let him touch her. Any one of those things could make her cave and accept him back, even after all he'd done.

The bond was still there. Eldra didn't think she could break it, even if she tried.

She was about to take a seat on the sofa when she saw something move on the floor by the door. Her eyes widened when she realised it was a droid's foot – Venny's foot. He had been taken out by the droid popper, and she'd completely forgotten.

Guilt rushed up on her as she hurried over and fell to her knees by the droid's side. He looked awful; wires torn, arms detached from his body, eyes flickering… The grenade had to be stronger than usual, to do this to him. She was briefly angry at Lorn for doing this, but it didn't last. Lorn had been her last hope of escape, and for all he knew, Venny could have been some kind of droid assassin who could've killed him.

"Venny!"

"Eldra…" His voice sounded different; cracked, fuzzy. His voice box had been damaged, as well. "I have been damaged… beyond repair…"

"Don't say that," she told him. "Maul's cut you into pieces plenty of times before, and we've put you back together again."

"No… too… damaged…" Sparks started popping up all over him. "System… failure… I… am… sorry… so… sorry…"

His lights flickered out, and then he was gone.

Eldra could do nothing but sit there and stare at him, too shocked to cry.

Venny had been annoying at times, but he'd become a surprisingly comforting presence in her life; the one person she could stand to be around whenever she'd been unable to deal with Maul and his shit. She sensed through the Force that he was right, and whatever had been done to him couldn't be fixed. He was dead.

Leaving her alone with her daughter, and the man who would ruin them both.

Maul reappeared with Kassandra in his arms, gently stroking the back of her head. He clutched her like he'd almost lost her, and Eldra realised that in his eyes, he'd nearly lost them both. If Lorn had gotten away with the Holocron and reached the Jedi, then they would have come and rescued the pair of them.

In his eyes, Maul had saved them – when really, all he had done was doom them.

Because he wasn't going to stop his master from taking Kassandra, nor was he going to disobey his master's orders to kill Eldra herself. She knew that now. Her influence hadn't been enough to change him.

She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. But all she could do was stay silent in her tranquil fury.

"Venny!" Kassandra wriggled out of her father's arms and hurried over to Eldra and the broken droid. "Venny…"

"He's just sleeping," Eldra lied. She turned her daughter away before she saw the body of Lorn Pavan, picking her up and holding her close. "Speaking of which, I think it's your bedtime, Kassie." The sky outside was going dark. Was it really that late already?

"No!" Kassandra shook her head. "No sleep." But she yawned, and Eldra fought to hold back her smile. With two stubborn parents, it was unsurprising that their child was just as stubborn.

Eldra carried her daughter back towards their quarters, ignoring Maul as she passed him. He went to follow, but she once again held out her finger to stop him. "Don't. We're not done here. We'll talk once I've put her down."

Maul seemed reluctant to argue in front of their tired daughter, so settled for stroking his fingers down the child's lekku. "Goodnight, my little pup."

Kassandra mumbled something in return, but it sounded like nonsense in her tired state. Upon reaching their quarters, Eldra gently laid her down on the bed they shared. She had long outgrown her cot, and it was easier for them to sleep in the same bed instead of trying to fit another bed into the room. Eldra suspected that Maul had been meaning to ask her to share his room on a more permanent basis in order to give their daughter her own room. If he'd asked that morning, Eldra would have probably said yes.

Now, she didn't want to set a foot in his room ever again.

She placed her daughter's wolf toy next to her, then leaned down and kissed her forehead. After watching over her for a few moments, Eldra left the room and closed the door behind her. She hoped the sound proof walls would mask what was about to happen.

Taking a deep breath, Eldra re-entered the main apartment area. Maul was emitting a low, constant growl as he paced the room, almost prowling like a predator.

"I don't want you touching me anymore," she said, breaking the silence. Maul stopped pacing. "I don't want you near me. What you did today reminded me of what you are, and I can't let you back in if you're going to go around killing my friends."

Maul clenched his fist. "The Jedi deserve to die for what they did to the Sith. I have told you that before. It's not my fault that you forgot."

"And what about me, then?" she asked. "Do I deserve to die?"

He hesitated. "You are the exception. I need you."

Eldra shook her head. "And yet, you'll kill me on your master's orders when the time comes. Look, I don't know what happened between our two Orders. The Jedi told me that the Sith were evil and needed to be destroyed, but that sounds exactly like what you're telling me now about the Jedi, so I'm not sure anymore. And Lorn… If how they treated him is true, then it's clear that the Jedi Order isn't perfect. But I know that the Jedi don't deserve to die for trying to do the right thing. And the Jedi of today don't deserve to die for the mistakes their forebearers made in the past."

She could tell he was trying to keep his temper, which for Maul was a notable effort. "You're saying I should have let them live?"

"Darsha had a whole life in front of her," Eldra explained. "She could have done so much if she'd had the chance. And her master, Anoon Bondara, was the Temple's Battlemaster. He didn't just teach Darsha; he taught me, too. Everything I've thrown at you, everything you've learnt from me, I learned from him."

Maul just looked pleased with himself. "If he was the Battlemaster of the Jedi Order, then that proves I am powerful enough to protect you and Kassandra from any threat."

"Except your master."

He snarled and looked like he wanted to lash out, but stopped himself. "You cannot stop me from seeing my daughter."

Eldra screwed her eyes shut and restrained herself from screaming at him. If Maul could make the effort, so could she. "I know. I know you still have to train her; still have to send holovids back to your master. But I won't be happy about it. Your master is a piece of bantha shit, and you're just the same. The sooner I get Kassie away from the pair of you, the better."

Maul snarled again and went to grab her arm, but she was faster and grabbed his wrist before he could. He didn't struggle and settled on glaring at her. "I need to keep you here. It's the only way I can protect you."

But Eldra just looked at him sadly. "I wish I could believe that."

She let him go and hurried back into her quarters, locking the door behind her. She kept herself composed until she was alone in the refresher, and then she let the tears flow. Everything hurt, and it hurt more because she still had feelings for him; she couldn't just make them go away, no matter how badly she wanted them to.

The garnet burned against her chest, but she couldn't even bring herself to remove it.

Finally composing herself, Eldra stared at her reflection in the mirror. Bloodshot eyes stared back at her, and she made a decision. The bond couldn't be broken, but there was something she could do. It would hurt, but it was for the sake of her sanity.

She focussed on the bond between her and Maul… and she blocked it.

And though she didn't feel the pain on his end, she heard his anguished roar.

In another part of the city, the galaxy's only hope was snuffed out.

I-Five, knowing that his friend was dead, went to seek help from another. He couldn't reach the Jedi Temple alone, not without being snatched from the streets by eager criminals looking for droids to sell as scrap.

Unfortunately for him, the Sakiyan he thought he could trust was one of those criminals. Tuden Sal led I-Five into his restaurant before sneaking up behind the droid and switching him off. Then, as was procedure, he wiped the droid's memory.

And the location of Eldra and her daughter, along with the knowledge that the Sith had returned, was lost.

Maul walked dutifully behind his master as they approached the petrified remains of the ancient Sith Lords.

It had been weeks since he had killed two Jedi and passed his master's test. Two weeks since Eldra had cut him out of her life, leaving him with that familiar emptiness he had tried so hard to fill with her presence.

Every day he would check to see if she was still alive, since he could no longer feel her through their bond. And every time, she would silently glare at him until he went away, making it clear she wanted nothing to do with him. It felt like one of his hearts had been ripped from him, and the pain was almost too much to live with.

At least he still had Kassandra. His pup filled his emptiness and kept his other heart beating. But in less than a year she would be gone too, and every time he remembered that, he had to stop himself from breaking everything in sight.

It was no wonder Sidious had sensed his turmoil. Maul followed him through the ash-covered battleground, wondering what his master was up to. Was he going to be tested again? These days, he felt like the entire ordeal with Eldra and Kassandra was one big test from the Force.

That was something he hadn't considered. Were Eldra and Kassandra merely a test he needed to pass? Did he need to eradicate them both in order to prove his dedication to the Sith? He fought back against the notion, denying that he needed to take such action. As a Sith, he had the power to take whatever he wanted. It was within his rights to possess everything he desired.

They were his. It was as simple as that.

"…the ashes of our fallen brethren hold more than one lesson," Sidious was saying as he stopped before one of the corpses. "Breathe deep, my apprentice. Let us see what the dark side has to show you."

Maul stepped forwards and gathered a handful of ash from the corpse, before holding it up to his nose and breathing it in. He closed his eyes as the world began to spin around him. And when he opened them, his surroundings had changed.

Light shone through the windows into a room filled with fountains. There were many beings meditating in various places around the room, and Maul clenched his fists when he recognised the Room of a Thousand Fountains from Eldra's descriptions. He was in the Jedi Temple.

"No… No!" He stared down into one of the pools and saw that his eyes were brown instead of their usual Sith yellow. In a move of desperation, he reached for his lightsaber and found that while it was still double-bladed, the blades were blue. "This cannot be…!"

"Hey, you."

The voice was warm and familiar, and had an immediately calming effect on him. He switched off his lightsaber before turning and smiling at the sight before him. "Eldra. You're here."

She smiled at him. Looking her up and down, Maul noticed that she was dressed in the same Jedi robes she'd been wearing when they first met. They fit her the same way her lightsaber fit perfectly in her hand, and he expected the emptiness in his one damaged heart to be filled by her presence.

But he felt… nothing. Not even emptiness.

"Where else would I be?" Eldra said to him, pulling him out of his thoughts. "Obi-Wan said I'd find you here. He's gone to challenge Siri to a duel in the training room. Wanna come and watch?"

Maul looked down at himself. He too was wearing Jedi robes. They felt wrong, but not as wrong as how he felt on the inside. All of his anger and hatred had melted away, but there was nothing to replace it. No passion, no emotion. When he looked at Eldra, all he could muster was a logical conclusion that he should spend time with her because she was his equal in battle. Nothing more, nothing less.

It was all wrong.

Was this what being a Jedi felt like? Feeling… nothing? Was this how Eldra felt every day? How could she bear it? Instead of bringing him peace, Maul could feel himself going insane. He needed to feel something, but every time he tried to make himself angry or make himself hate whatever he could see, nothing happened. His emotions were just out of reach, and he didn't know how to touch them.

"Eldra…?" She was his rock; his guiding star. If he couldn't feel any negative emotions, surely she could help him feel the positive ones?

"Come on!" she laughed. "I'm not going without my best friend!"

"Friend…" It was the only thing that felt right in the sea of confusion. He clutched onto the small ounce of feeling that word gave him, along with her hand. But something else was missing. And then he realised that while his first heart was in his hand, his second was nowhere to be seen. "Where is Kassandra?"

Eldra frowned, confused. "Who's Kassandra?"

And everything came crashing down.

Not literally. The room was still the same, but Maul could feel the world collapsing around him. His pup was gone; she didn't exist, because the Jedi forbade attachments which meant he and Eldra were only friends…

Before he knew what was happening, his anger returned to him with a roar, and his lightsaber was suddenly in his hands. He beheaded a Jedi Master meditating next to a pool; the man had his back turned, and hadn't even seen it coming. Other Jedi saw what was happening and rushed to stop him, but they were no match for his anger. He cut them down, one-by-one. Around him, the Temple began to burn.

But more importantly, he could feel again. His anger and his hatred had returned, and with it came satisfaction. He was fulfilling his destiny; achieving his victory. The Jedi were dying all around him, and their Temple was burning. He was unbeatable.

"Maul, no!"

A pair of hands grabbed him from behind, trying to stop him. Maul was too deep into his fury and stabbed his attacker without looking.

Too late did he realise who he'd just killed.

"Eldra!"

She stared at him in anguish, tears in her eyes. "Maul…"

The freedom he had felt upon his emotions returning instantly vanished. Instead they caged him with a horrific feeling that stabbed at his hearts and filled him with unbearable agony.

He discarded his lightsaber and caught Eldra as she fell, kneeling to the ground with her. "Eldra… No… I didn't mean to…"

"You may not have meant it," she said with her final breaths. "But you did. I am a Jedi, and it is your destiny to kill me."

Her eyes closed, and her body turned to ash.

The cry that left Maul was one of anger and sorrow. His eyes were wet, and he hastily tried to dry them before his master saw. When he looked down at his hands, he realised he was crying tears of blood.

And what was more, the emptiness was worse than ever; worse than when he hadn't felt anything at all.

A shadowy figure appeared before him. It was his master, but also not. And behind him, more shadowy figures appeared. Maul recognised them instantly as the Sith Lords of the past. The largest figure who loomed above them all he knew to be Darth Bane, the first in the lineage of the Rule of Two.

Maul stayed on his knees before them, his hearts crumbling from the pain that overwhelmed them. "I have done as you asked." He had performed his Sith Sacrifice.

Because that was what Eldra was meant to be. To truly become a Sith Lord, he needed to kill the one he cared for; the one who grounded him, who connected him to the wider galaxy. It needed to be severed so he could give himself completely to the teachings of the Sith, and allow him to sink deeper into his anger and hate.

It was something he'd been denying for a long time. He was torn between her and his loyalty to Sidious, to the Sith. He wanted to have both.

The Sith Lords spoke as one, though only Sidious's mouth moved. "Why do you weep like a child?"

"You told me that I would be free!" Maul choked out, past his tears. "You told me that all would be right!"

They spoke again. "And it is."

It was a lie. It had to be. What he was feeling wasn't freedom. It felt like a chain that was gradually squeezing the life out of him.

Maul looked into the eyes of the Sith Lords before him, and screamed, "Then why do I feel such pain?!"

He called his lightsaber back to his hand and ignited both sides, before leaping at the shadows in a blind rage. They vanished, as did the ruins of the Jedi Temple, and Maul found himself standing back on Malachor.

Behind him, his master was clapping. "Good, good. Tell me, my apprentice. What did you see?"

For a moment, he hesitated to answer. How could he admit his weaknesses to his master? How could he admit his failings as a Sith?

"Many things, my master," he said instead. Sidious didn't need to know that he was determined never to sacrifice Eldra. He didn't need to know that he planned to find a way to keep her and Kassandra, and prove that a Sith didn't need to sacrifice his emotional ties in exchange for power.

If the Sith were as powerful as he'd been led to believe, he could have both.

"Good," said Sidious. If he suspected anything, he didn't show it. "And what have you learned from this?"

"That my emotions make me strong."

It would take some time to win back Eldra's trust, but he had done it before. He could do it again. If she saw how determined he was to keep her and their daughter safe, then surely, she would return to his side? It was only a matter of time. He would win her back, he would defeat the Jedi, and he would rule the galaxy alongside his master.

And yet, the feeling of triumph that came with this thought, also came with a feeling of dread.